Wednesday, March 22, 2017

Ken Koprowski ~ 2nd interview and his book Fathers Collected Poems

I AM PLEASED TO WELCOME BACK AUTHOR
Ken Koprowski



TITLE: Fathers (Collected Poems 1973-2015)
RELEASE DATE: July 30, 2016
AUTHOR: Ken Koprowski
KEYWORDS: fathers, fatherhood, poetry, parenthood, wilderness, war, death and survival, love, triumph
CATEGORIES: Poetry/Family
PAGE COUNT: 66
ISBN: 978-0692734827
IMPRINT: Veritas



AUTHOR BIO:
Ken Koprowski is a poet, writer, communications consultant, and educator. His collection of poetry, Fathers – Collected Poems 1973-2015, is being published by Ravenswood Publishing in the spring of 2016. In addition to being a prolific writer, he is an award-winning creative director and producer, and photographer. He earned his M.A. in Creative Writing with a specialization in poetry and completed his doctoral coursework at Syracuse University before pursuing a career in public relations. He is working on a second book of poetry and a collection of short stories entitled Draft Dodgers. 

He currently teaches advanced public relations writing and a range of public relations subjects in the Master’s programs at New York University, Iona College and Manhattanville College. In addition, he teaches crisis communication and reputation management – courses he designed -- in the MBA program and business communications at UConn Stamford.

Ken has extensive advertising, marketing and communication management experience. He served as corporate spokesperson in diverse, complex and difficult situations. Ken has written speeches for many well-known corporate leaders, annual and CSR reports, OPEDs, communications plans, ads, video and audio scripts, websites, blogs, and more. He recently edited, and wrote the introduction and chapter on using digital and social media in crisis communications for a popular crisis communications handbook.

Ken grew up in the Midwest – in Chicago and central and northern Wisconsin. For the past 40 years, he’s lived and worked in New York, southwestern Connecticut and southern Vermont. He and his wife of 35 years have three sons and a daughter, and they in turn have nine children of their own.



BANTER – STUFF ABOUT YOU

Q: When you think of a garden, do you picture vegetables or flowers?
A: Both. These days, flowers are the best bet -- the damn critters eat the veggies before I can harvest them, although the deer eat the daylily buds before they can bloom, sigh.

Q: If you didn’t have to clean them, how many bathrooms would you have in your home?  
A: What’s cleaning got to do with it? If you gotta go, you gotta go somewhere.
 How many if you have to clean them?
A: Hmmm, this question tells more about you than me.

Q: Bedtime, relaxing so you can sleep sounds. Is your preference, white noise, TV, soft music, ocean waves, forest or meadow sounds, babbling brook, or something else?
 A: The sound of silence, as in “Hello darkness, my old friend.” (My thanks to Simon and Garfunkel.)

Q: What kind of music do you listen to? Do you have an all time favorite song?
A: Classic jazz and classic vinyl rock. Dave Grusin’s and Lee Ritenour’s “Mountain Dance,” followed closely by Stevie Wonder’s “Sunshine of my life.”

Q: If your life were a movie would it be considered an action film, comedy, drama, romance, fantasy or a combination?
A: It has been and is all the above, although comedy and fantasy tend to dominate.

Q: How do you feel about exercise?
A: Love it outdoors, not so much in the gym. These days, I’m walking four to six miles.

BOOKS – ABOUT THE CRAFT

Q: What is your favorite part of writing?
A: Having an idea and then developing it word by word, metaphor by metaphor and watching it bud and blossom like a rose.

Q; Now your least favorite part?
A: Proofreading and copyediting.

Q: Describe your favorite heroine? (This doesn’t have to be one of yours.)
A: The two women in “Cold Mountain,” Ada Monroe and Ruby Thewes. After them, it would be Peewee, below.

Q: Describe your favorite hero? (This doesn’t have to be one of yours.)
A: Kip in in Robert Heinlein’s “Have Spacesuit Will Travel,” from “Centerville” who works as a drug store soda jerk, and wins a “surplus” spacesuit in a soap contest. He answers a distress radio call from Peewee, girl genius and together they save earth from galactic punishment. For a bit of flavor, Kip’s bullied by an oaf who’s laugh is “yuk, yuk.”


Q: Who's your favorite author?
A: I have many favorites, from poets John Ashberry, Michael Anania and Robert Duncan to Robert Heinlein and C.S. Lewis.

Q: Your favorite title?
A: “Dr. Strangelove, or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb,” followed by Hunter S. Thompson’s many “Fear and Loathing” articles.

Q: Which holiday celebrations do you like to incorporate into your stories and why?
A: In “Fathers,” deaths are celebrated often - I’ve lost all of mine.

Q: Generally speaking, is your work based on real life experience? If it's not would you want it to be?
A: Yes, but not in an autobiographical way. Life inspires my writing.


BOOKS - NOW LETS PROMOTE – STRUT YOUR STUFF

Q: What are you working on now? Would you like to share anything about it?
A: My current collection of poems, “Postcards to the living,” is about the messages the departed “send” us when our memories are triggered by something in the landscape or news or intersecting thoughts or even a calendar date or holiday. It begins with a “message” from my late friend and golf partner -- he missed our scheduled game because of an unexpected pulmonary embolism in Prague. I played the round with my memories of him. The departed have ways of reminding us of how we miss them and why. I’m also shaping a book - probably a series of interrelated short stories about the Vietnam War era and its impact on families.

Q: How can we find you? Do you have a web page, Facebook page or any buy links?
A:   Yes, I do. Here are the links.
 
AUTHOR LINKS:
http://www.koprowskicomm.com
http://twitter.com/KenKoprowski
http://www.linkedin.com/in/kenkoprowski



Buy Links:








ONE LINER:
Fathers is an inspiring, highly emotive collection of poems exploring fatherhood – its mysteries, triumphs, magic, humor, pain, and loss.  In it the poet illustrates that being a Dad is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of living, and at times, one of the most frustrating -- engaging all that is human in the reader.

SYNOPSIS:
Fathers is an inspiring and highly emotive collection of poems spanning 40 years. Fatherhood is the inspiration for much of this book – its mysteries, triumphs, magic, humor, pain, and loss.  In it the poet – an acute observer and lyrical writer – explores fatherhood from the perspective of a grandson, son, father, husband, and grandfather. His poems illustrate that being a dad is perhaps the most rewarding aspect of living, and at times, one of the most frustrating. The pages of this remarkable volume will engage all that is human in the reader.


Excerpt/Sample 

southern vermont symphony

throughout the night freezing rain
coats the mountainsides
every twig pine bough trunk rock ledge road
coated
by dawn, each weighed down with
crystalline coat
a tinkling concert begins
first ever so
softly
and as the sun rises
behind the clouds
andante patter with crescendos
as boughs spring free in rebellion
or self-preservation, sudden
crashes cymbals
in a wild arrangement now
vivace
rush of ice falling until
the middle March symphony suddenly ends
leaving a silvery carpet sparkling and
crackling underfoot
illuminating my walk

Copyright ã2016-2017 Kenneth M. Koprowski. All rights reserved.



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